NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Ben Rhodes moves into 2nd round of NASCAR playoffs with win

Published Sep. 30, 2017 10:32 p.m. ET

LAS VEGAS (AP) Ben Rhodes earned his first career Truck Series victory by holding off Christopher Bell on Saturday night at Las Vegas.

Rhodes earned an automatic berth into the second round of the playoffs with the win. Bell was the winner a week ago at New Hampshire.

Rhodes was the winner of the second stage but didn't get a chance to race for the win until John Hunter Nemechek ran out of fuel under caution with 14 laps remaining. He headed to pit road from the lead for a disastrous stop - Nemechek stalled leaving pit road, and his crew had to push his truck back to his pit stall before Nemechek could pull away.

Although Nemechek stayed on the lead lap, he was 10th on the restart with seven laps remaining.

It set up a frantic dash to the finish, and Rhodes had to use a late block on Bell to save the victory.

Bell finished second and was followed by Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric and Kaz Grala - all championship contenders.

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More AP Auto Racing: http://racing.ap.org

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NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series